Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Lady Morgan to Lord Aylmer, 18 April 1828
April 18, 1828.
Dear Lord Aylmer,
The esteem and admiration I have heard you express for
Lord Anglesey, and the generous
sympathy I know you have always felt towards Ireland, induces me to state to
you, sans préambule, the
following facts. A rumour prevails at present in Dublin, that Lord ![]()
| THE O’BRIENS AND O’FLAHERTIES—1827. | 257 |
![]()
Anglesey means to accept the invitation to be given to him
by the Beef Steak Club. The circumstance is apparently
so insignificant, so utterly unconsequential that it is necessary to be utterly
Irish, and to know thoroughly the state of this unhappy country to attach the
smallest consequence to it, or for a moment to suppose that the well merited
and universal popularity of Lord Anglesey could for a
moment be shaken by such an event. The fact, however, is so much the contrary,
that should Lord Anglesey take his place in a Society
which has so long offended the nation, and so utterly insulted the King in the
person of his representative, the Marquis of
Wellesley, not all the efforts of the Catholic leaders now
disposed to support and uphold the popularity of Lord
Anglesey’s government, would suffice to keep quiet that
nest of hornets the Catholic Association, who, emblematic of the rest of this
susceptible but injudicious nation, are more willing to submit to injuries than
to insult. I need not tell you, my dear Lord, the effect of the unlucky faculty
of Lord Wellesley in yielding to the request of the Beef
Steak Club, impeded his subsequent efforts at tranquillising Ireland, nor into
what annoyances it betrayed him. For the party to whom his unguarded concession
was so flagrant a triumph, has acted more like a froward child, that pouts the
more it is petted. With respect to the liberty I have taken, and the mode I
have chosen to communicate this to your Lordship in preference to any person in
an official position about Lord Anglesey, my selection has
arisen from your holding no place, and from knowing that you are ![]()
| 258 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. | |
![]()
equally the friend of Ireland and of its gallant and
excellent chief governor. I leave it entirely to your Lordship’s judgment
and kindly feelings to act as your excellent judgment may dictate, and
I am,
Your Lordship’s very truly,
Henry William Paget, first marquess of Anglesey (1768-1854)
Originally Bayly, educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford; he was MP
(1790-1810), commander of cavalry under Sir John Moore, lost a leg at Waterloo, and raised
to the peerage 1815; he was lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1828-29, 1830-33).
Richard Wellesley, first marquess Wellesley (1760-1842)
The son of Garret Wesley (1735-1781) and elder brother of the Duke of Wellington; he was
Whig MP, Governor-general of Bengal (1797-1805), Foreign Secretary (1809-12), and
Lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1821-28); he was created Marquess Wellesley in 1799.
